LITERATURE

The Point of Vanishing: A Memoir of Two Years in Solitude

by Howard Axelrod
Beacon Pr. Sept. 2015. 224p. ISBN 9780807075463. pap. $16; ebk. ISBN 9780807075470. MEMOIR
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After suffering a freak eye injury in a pickup basketball game, Axelrod embarked upon a period of intense reexamination of his life. This eventually led him to a house in northern Vermont where he spent two solitary years living by the rhythms of the seasons. The author tells the tale of his accident, its aftermath, and his sojourn in Vermont, in alternating vignettes, which build beautifully upon one another until readers come to learn about many of the pivotal events in his life. This particularly touching and personal memoir bears obvious comparison to Henry David Thoreau's Walden and Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild.
VERDICT A deeply felt and moving journey into no longer taking life, or the world around us, for granted.
Reviewed by Staff , Oct 01, 2015
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